Santanu Sanyal

According to steel industry sources, at least four rakes need to be loaded every day at the Visakhapatnam port to meet the coal shortage at the Bhilai Steel Plant.

Kolkata , Nov. 29

A HIGH-LEVEL meeting of the authorities of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust, the Railways and Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) will be held shortly to sort out the problems beingfaced by SAIL with regard to the loading of imported coking coal at the port.

Bhilai Steel Plant, which is totally dependent on the Visakhapatnam port for the imported coking coal, is not getting enough coal because of short-loading.

The port authorities complain of non-availability of sufficient wagons, while the Railways blames them, pointing out that the port-level facilities leave much to be desired.

According to steel industry sources, at least four rakes need to be loaded every day at the Visakhapatnam port to meet the coal shortage at the Bhilai Steel Plant. However, enough rakes are not available. In a normal situation, 2.5 to three rakes of loading would be enough to meet the plant's requirement.

The current shortage of coal at the Bhilai Steel Plant is believed to be due to the inclement weather in the region in September and October. As a result, not only was the arrival of ships with imported coal affected, the despatches from the port to the plant too were far from satisfactory. Normal loading and movement was not possible for several days. During the period, the plant used up its own stocks. It therefore needs reinforcement not only to meet its own demand but also to build up stock.

While the demand for rakes has increased, the supply has not, thanks to the drop in thermal coal shipments through the port. Heavy rainfall in Tamil Nadu has boosted the generation of hydel power in the State, providing good cushion; as a result, thermal generation has been lower than before, causing a drop in demand for thermal coal and therefore fewer coastal shipments through the port.

Precisely for the same reason, fewer wagons than before are being placed for transporting coal from the mines to the port. The same wagons, which bring coal from the mines to the port, are used for back-loading of imported coal for transportation to the Bhilai Steel Plant.

Inquiries with the Railways reveal that full rake loading at the Visakhapatnam port is possible only in its coal jetty. The other berths handling imported coal for steel plant do not have full rake loading facility but only split rake facility. This causes detention of rakes — not less than 15 to 20 hours, sometimes even more. The Railways has sought to meet the increased coal demand of the plant by moving rakes from the Paradip port. About 15-16 rakes are believed to have been moved so far.

However, such movement is likely to prove costly for SAIL as South Eastern Railway is understood to have slapped additional booking charge, amounting to more than Rs 10 lakh for each rake — on the ground that the loaded rakes, though originating at Paradip, which is under the jurisdiction of East Coast Railway, has to pass through large sections of South Eastern Railway before reaching the Bhilai Steel Plant.

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